Friday, 16 March 2012

Fine Dining, Difficult Second Albums and Other Mixed Metaphors

Supporting a team like Santa Cruz, who over the last few years have put their supporters through Websterian (John) levels of agony and suffering, does something to the body and soul. It creates a certain toughness of spirit. Raises the pain threshold. Makes one, so runs the theory, a better man.

Not for the tricolor the whining of the supporters of leading English teams not named Manchester City, with all their complaining that their fabulously wealthy club is not as rich as another, even more fabulously wealthy club. Not for the tricolor the whimpering of the Flamenguista, demanding the head of Patricia Amorim on a silver platter because Mengão don’t win the Brasileirão, the Libertadores, and the All-Rio Under 15’s Domino Championship every single year...

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A BEER BEFORE LUNCH

A mixture of short stories and blog writings, A Beer Before Lunch is the story of how to become lost in the occasionally anarchic, always intoxicating city of Recife in the north east of Brazil. Funny, touching and occasionally tragic, it is about football, friendship, love, sex, death, loss and everything in between.

James Young writes about Brazil and Brazilian football for The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, Rolling Stone, Sports Ilustrated, ESPN, The Observer, The Howler, The Blizzard, Folha de São Paulo, The New York Times Goal Blog, World Soccer and In Bed With Maradona, among other sites and publications. He has lived in Brazil for almost ten years. In addition to journalism, he is a writer of fiction and has been shortlisted for the Fish and Sean O Faolain short story prizes. Email: seeadarkness@gmail.com

Chimurenga Chronic

If you want to read a six thousand word piece on Recife, Brazil, and the cultural phenomenon that is Santa Cruz FC, the only place to go is December's issue of the Chimurenga Chronic, a pan African quarterly.

The Blizzard

An extended piece about football in the norte and nordeste of Brazil, The Far Corner, can be found in Issue 6 of the wonderful The Blizzard magazine.